BATON ROUGE — With four home runs on the day, including two by All-American Killian Roessner, the ninth-ranked LSU softball team earned a pair of wins on the opening day of the Easton Purple & Gold Challenge, defeating Southern Miss, 8-5, and South Alabama, 7-0, on Friday night at Tiger Park.
With the wins, the Tigers improved to 12-3 on the season and 2-0 in tournament play. The loss dropped the Lady Eagles to 9-8 on the season and 0-1 in the Purple & Gold Challenge, while the Jaguars dropped to 8-7 overall and 1-1 in tournament action. In other action on Friday, South Alabama defeated Penn State, 1-0, on a walk-off sacrifice fly in the eighth inning, and Penn State defeated Tulsa, 4-1.
The Purple & Gold Challenge continues on Saturday with South Alabama taking on Tulsa at 9 a.m., followed by Penn State facing Southern Miss at 11:15 a.m. LSU returns to action against Penn State at 1:30 p.m. before taking on Tulsa at 3:45 p.m. The day concludes with Southern Miss facing South Alabama at 6 p.m.
The top four teams advance to championship play on Sunday. The second-seeded team will face the third-seeded team at 9:30 a.m., while the top seed will take on the fourth-seeded team at 11:45 a.m. The winners will advance to the championship game at 2 p.m.
Cody Trahan earned the complete-game win for the Tigers to improve to 4-1 on the season. The sophomore allowed five runs on five hits with three walks and 11 strikeouts. Unfortunately, of the five hits she allowed, three went for home runs. The home run bug has been troublesome for the Tigers all season as the LSU pitching staff has surrendered 15 in 15 games. Luckily, the Tiger bats have responded in most cases, recording 18 home runs of their own, including the four hit on Friday.
“We’ve got to keep the ball in the ballpark,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “That is a little disappointing. We have got to finish games. Cody kind of hit a wall, but thankfully our bats came around. Once again, we have got to clean up a few little things and we will be okay.”
The Tigers got their day started with a run in the top of the first inning against Southern Miss. A Hollis single to right field scored Rachel Mitchell to put LSU ahead, 1-0. The score remained the same until the top of the fourth inning. Roessner led off with a solo home run to left field. A Mitchell single to right field scored Erika Sluss and Jessica Mouse to run the lead to 4-0. A sacrifice fly to centerfield by Shannon Stein scored Dee Dee Henderson for the 5-0 advantage.
LSU got within run-rule distance with three more runs in the top of the fifth inning. After a leadoff walk by Quinlan Duhon, Roessner hit her second home run of the game to push the lead to 7-0. The multiple home run outing by Roessner tied the LSU single-game record for home runs in a contest at two and gave the senior four for the season. The Tigers’ final run of the game came courtesy of an RBI ground out by Jazz Jackson that scored Sluss.
Needing only three outs to complete the run rule, the Lady Eagles kept the game alive courtesy of the long ball. Lauren Castellvi led off the bottom of the fifth with a home run to left center field. In the bottom of the sixth, Jennifer Fox hit a solo homer to center field. Southern Miss would get to within three in the bottom of the seventh. With one out and a runner on first, Kristin Chaney tripled to right center. With two outs, pinch hitter Brittney Piggott then homered off the right field foul pole to get as close at 8-5. Trahan then closed out the win by striking out Kristin Pilgrim to end the game.
Meghan Harbuck started and took the loss for the Lady Eagles to fall to 2-2 on the year. She allowed eight runs on seven hits with six walks in four innings. Hannah Griffin came on in relief and gave up one hit and two walks with two strikeouts in the final three innings.
In the nightcap, the Tigers jumped out early once again, but this time never looked back. LSU used an RBI double by Hollis to get on the board, 1-0, in the bottom of the first. The Tigers added another run on a leadoff home run by Mouse to stretch the lead to 2-0.
The score would remain unchanged until LSU broke it open in the bottom of the sixth. With one out and Henderson on second, Stein recorded an RBI single through the left side that scored Henderson. Hollis then recorded her team-best fifth home run of the season, hitting the ball out in center field, to stretch the lead to 5-0.
With runners on second and third, Sluss came up big with a two-RBI single to center field that scored Tiffany Shaw and Ashley Applegate. Sluss moved all the way to third on the play after the ball bounced away from the plate on the throw home. With the winning run at third, however, LSU could not end the game early as Amanda Leggett recorded back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
Dani Hofer earned the win for the Tigers to improve to 7-1 on the year. She allowed only three hits with four walks and 11 strikeouts in six innings of work. Casey Failed closed out the final inning, striking out one as she retired the batters in order to end the game.
Beth Pilgrim started and took the loss for South Alabama to fall to 5-2 on the season. The first inning run she allowed to the Tigers snapped a 21-inning scoreless streak. In five and a third innings of work, she allowed five runs, four earned, on nine hits with three walks and a strikeout. Tara Donaldson came on in the sixth and allowed two runs on one hit with a walk while officially not recording an inning of action. Leggett closed out the final two-thirds of a inning, retiring both batters she faced.
LSU 100 430 0 – 8 8 1
USM 000 011 3 – 5 5 0
Cody Trahan and Killian Roessner. Meghan Harbuck, Hannah Griffin (5) and Kristin Pilgrim. WP ? Trahan (4-1). LP ? Harbuck (2-2). S ? None. HR ? Killian Roessner 2, Brittney Pigott, Jennifer Fox, Lauren Castellvi. T ? 2:04.
USA 000 000 0 – 0 3 4
LSU 110 005 x – 7 10 1
Beth Pilgrim, Tara Donaldson (6), Amanda Leggett (6) and Kristen Hayes. Dani Hofer, Casey Faile (7) and Killian Roessner. WP ? Hofer (7-1). LP ? Pilgrim (5-2). S ? None. HR ? Tayl’r Hollis, Jessica Mouse. T ? 2:02. A ? 712.